By Brian Gosset
X – @gosset41
X – @gmsportsmedia1
DENTON – Sanger got out to a comfortable lead and then held off Prosper Richland in the 7th inning to win 7-6 in Game 1 of the Class 4A D1 Region 2 champ series on Wednesday night at Denton Ryan.
Game 2 is 6:30 pm Thursday back at Ryan.
“It was amazing especially since no one thought we’d win this ball game or this series and it really shows that anyone can win this game,” senior shortstop Lily Wilson said.
After going scoreless through 2 innings, Richland (31-7) got on the board first with an RBI sac fly by TJ Spain to left field.
Sanger (21-11-3) bounced back after going down with 4 runs in the bottom of the 3rd. Dalilah Millan picked up an RBI single and Abby Chapmond drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI grounder to second.
Wilson, an Oklahoma Christian signee, capped off the big frame with a 2-run home run to right field to give the Indians a 4-1 lead.
“This team has a lot of experience, we’ve been in this position 3 years in a row so we just wanted to hop on it and knew we could do it,” Wilson said. “That at-bat, I knew she was going to throw outside because I had fouled one off before. She wasn’t going to do that to me again.”
One inning later and the Indians continued to extend the margin.
Paige Childs, a Salt Lake CC signee, drove 2 runners in with a long single to the center field wall. Childs would also score in the 4th with an RBI by Millan.
“My girls have a good knowledge of the zone and they don’t chase much,” Sanger coach Toby Kloewer said. “They have good pitch selection and when they find one in the zone, they get their barrels on it. We didn’t chase their pitcher out of the zone and when she came back inside, we were ready for it and my girls have been doing that well lately.”
Continuing to lead 7-1 after 5, the Raiders made a late push.
With the bases loaded and 1 out, Richland pulled within 7-3 on back-to-back infield RBIs from Isabelle Lewis and Berklee Shannon. 3 more runs in the 7th nearly completed the comeback.
Makayla Barnes hit a lead off single to center and two batters later, Alani De Leon drew a 1-out walk. The bases were loaded again when Justyce Malone was hit by a pitch.
Sam Riley hit the first pitch of her at bat for a 2-run single and Malone would score on a grounder by Lewis to get the Raiders within 7-6 and 2 outs.
Shannon hit a 0-1 pitch well to deep left, but left fielder Carley Kates hustled and stretched to make the catch that ended the game.
Lewis, a freshman, pitched the whole game for the Raiders while Chapmond started and got the win for Sanger. Childs later came on in relief.
Chapmond held Richland to 4 hits and 1 run through the first 5 innings.
“I was mainly just throwing my drop ball and working it at different heights and at different parts of the plate,” Chapmond said. “I had confidence in our offense that we would come back. We’ve hit pitchers like this pretty well.”
“Abby spins the ball really well,” Kloewer added. “She doesn’t get many strikeouts, but she misses barrels. She generates a lot of weak ground balls and pop flies and that’s what you saw tonight.”
Millan had 2 hits and 2 RBIs while Childs had 1 hit, 2 RBIs, 2 walks and 2 runs scored.
Barnes, Layla Pourciau and Riley all had 2 hits for Richland, which had its 21-game win streak snapped by the Indians.
